EXTRA CREDIT

Photo courtesy of Bailey/Howe Special Collections

Operation B-B
The day the students moved a library

At 8 a.m. on November 15, 1961 the University’s brand new library was empty. Less than twelve hours later, some 250,000 volumes would be shelved, having been moved from the old Billings to the new Bailey by a workforce of faculty and almost two-thirds of the student body.

Peggy Peabody ’62 recalled memories of the move in an e-mail to VQ this winter. “What I remember best is that it was the most lovely type of fall day that Vermont has to offer,” Peabody wrote. “The campus turned out as one and the move turned into an event. It was a long day but many hands indeed made light work.” Peabody credited the Greek houses, “the organizing principle of the campus,” for driving the strong student presence. And the University’s decision to cancel classes for the day didn’t hurt.

Looking for details, I headed over to University Archives, where library staff member Sylvia Bugbee ’63 helped me search back issues of the Cynic. She also offered her own memories of the day when she was among the student workers, describing the chutes out the Billings windows, the loads trucked across campus, and the human chain at the Bailey end. “The guys did the lifting,” Bugbee says. “In those days, that’s what the guys did.” (Note: The guys in the photo must be resting up for their lifting with some truck supervision.)

Sandy Flaster ’65 told the story in the yellowed pages of the Cynic: 1,800 volunteers, three four-hour shifts, six thousand boxes, and credit to Bob Frenier ’62 and Charles Tierney ’61 for proposing the student-powered move known as “Operation B-B.” The reporter also noted that the Student Association served coffee and donuts, and volunteers got tickets to an SA dance that evening which entitled them to free refreshments.

An issue of the Cynic in the weeks leading up to the move included an enticement that wasn’t quite as sweet: “Vermonters are noted for being, shall we say, careful with money. A student mover of the books will cost relatively little; certainly not enough to cause a rise in any fees. But if the student mover should not work, professional movers will be hired, and the Library Fee will soar.”

So, what inspired the work of that memorable day? Carrot of a free Coke at the dance or stick of a higher bill from the University?

Sylvia Bugbee suggests that motivations were both simpler and more noble. “It was kind of a jolly event,” she says. “Everyone felt it was an important thing to have done.”

—Thomas Weaver